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The £10m ARR Moment: Fractional CMO for Scaleups

  • Writer: Laura Derbyshire
    Laura Derbyshire
  • 8 hours ago
  • 3 min read
woman in suit as a scaleup fractional CMO

Do you need a Fractional CMO for scaleups?

There is a very particular moment in a scaleup’s life where everything looks fine on paper: revenue is strong, the product is selling, investors are nodding approvingly, but behind the scenes, marketing is starting to creak. This moment usually arrives at around £10m ARR.


Nothing dramatic happens. No alarm sounds. No one storms into the office shouting, “We need a CMO!” But something subtle shifts.


Marketing, which until now has been a mix of hustle, experimentation and heroic effort, suddenly feels a bit heavier. More consequential. More expensive when it goes wrong.


And that’s because the rules have quietly changed.


Demand Generation: The Grown-Up Version

At £10m ARR, marketing is no longer about “trying things and seeing what sticks.” That phase has passed.


Now it’s about demand generation - the grown-up, slightly less glamorous cousin of growth hacking.


This is the stage where businesses want:

  • Predictable lead flow

  • Repeatable acquisition systems

  • Forecastable revenue contribution

  • Fewer surprises


Founders and. CEOs start asking questions like:

  • Why did pipeline dip this quarter?

  • Which channels actually scale?

  • Why are we spending this much and still arguing about attribution?


Marketing becomes operational. And operational things need leadership.


Why You Don’t (Yet) Have a CMO

Most £10m ARR businesses aren’t ready for a full-time CMO, and deep down, they know it.


A traditional CMO is built for:

  • Corporate narrative

  • Multi-market brand architecture

  • Board-level influence

  • Long-term reputation and valuation


At £10m ARR, the business is still:

  • Proving its repeatability

  • Refining its positioning

  • Tightening its unit economics

  • Figuring out what it wants to be when it grows up


Hiring a heavyweight CMO at this point can feel like buying a grand piano for a flat you might move out of next year. Impressive. Expensive. Slightly premature.


Enter: The Head of Growth (and Their Impossible Job)

Most scaleups at this stage rely on a Head of Growth or a Head of Marketing. These people are usually excellent. Smart. Committed. Slightly exhausted.


They are:

  • Running campaigns

  • Managing agencies

  • Reporting on numbers

  • Fixing funnels

  • Answering Slack messages at midnight


What they are not doing - because there is no time - is stepping back and asking the bigger questions:


  • What does this brand need to stand for next?

  • How does marketing support the next funding round?

  • What should we stop doing before it costs us a year?


This is not a capability problem. It’s a structural one.


Why Fractional CMOs Exist (and Why They’re Having a Moment)

The rise of the fractional CMO for scaleups is not a trend; it's been born out of necessity.


At £10m ARR, businesses need:

  • Senior judgement

  • Strategic coherence

  • Someone who has seen this stage before

  • Leadership without organisational bloat


A fractional CMO gives you:

  • Strategic direction without a full-time salary

  • Experience without ego

  • Alignment between founder ambition and marketing reality


They don’t replace your Head of Growth. They stop them from burning out or building the wrong thing beautifully.


The Quiet Return of Brand

Here’s where things get interesting.


Even though demand generation is the headline act, brand starts creeping back into the conversation around £10m ARR.


Suddenly:

  • Paid performance flattens

  • Sales cycles lengthen

  • Prospects need more convincing

  • Competitors start sounding suspiciously similar


Brand is no longer “the logo and the website.”It becomes shorthand for trust, clarity and momentum.


This is often the first sign that the business is heading towards a full-time CMO — just not yet.


The Scaleup Timeline

In practice, most healthy scaleups follow a quieter, more sensible path:

  • £2m–£10m ARR: Execution-led marketing, heavy on demand gen

  • £10m–£20m ARR: Head of Marketing/Head of Growth + Fractional CMO

  • £20m–£40m+ ARR: Full-time CMO becomes unavoidable


Skipping the middle stage is how companies end up with:

  • Expensive rebrands they didn’t need

  • Bloated teams with unclear ownership

  • Marketing strategies that look good but don’t compound


If you’re at £10m ARR and wondering whether you “should have a CMO by now,” the answer is probably no.


But if you’re feeling that marketing decisions suddenly matter more, cost more and take longer to undo, then yes, you need senior marketing leadership.

Just not all of it, all at once.


At this stage, the smartest move isn’t hiring a title. It’s buying experience, perspective and leverage — exactly when the business needs it.


That’s why fractional CMOs exist. And why, for scaleups at £10m ARR, they make far more sense than pretending you’re already a £50m company.


Fancy a chat?





 
 
 

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